Women DII College Top 20: Feb. 26, 2015

Three months have passed since the last Women DII College Top 20 ranking, and that waiting period was necessary. Even though spring leagues began in January, a disconcerting amount of forfeits and cancelations – across all in-season leagues – stunted the judgment process. The inconsistent competition has made it easier to keep those “idle” teams in the top spots and reasserts their positions. The previous ranking occurred before the DII fall championship semifinals, so we refreshed the notes with some playoff details. The only significant change was Davenport's switch with Winona for the No. 2 spot. The deciding factor was the teams' performances against fall champion Notre Dame College.

There are a few active teams that are flat-out good, and top among them is CSU Northridge. Last weekend, the SoCal side upended reigning league champ Long Beach State 52-10. Head coach Christina Alatorre, however, wasn’t quick to discount Saturday’s opponent.

“Honestly, the score does not reflect Long Beach’s performance,” Alatorre said. “We scored within the first minute, but then Long Beach’s forwards came in for the attack and did well driving the ball down the field. Our forwards took some time to adjust their defense and held Long Beach up in-goal at least three times.”

But once Northridge’s back line started working together, the try-scoring took off.

“Our biggest strength this game was support on offense and driving through the rucks on defense,” Alatorre said. “All this is something we've been working on in our previous league matches, and now we can say we were successful in those aspects of the game. We still have other things we need to work on, but [assistant coach] Adriana [Conrad-Forrest] and I are proud of the improvements this team has been making.”

The 49ers suffered some injuries in the second half, and until we’re certain they’re in good shape, UC Riverside is SoCal’s #2 team. UCR played Northridge to a 38-17 loss (read more), but two points separated the teams with 10 minutes remaining in regulation. Riverside joins the rankings at No. 16.

Also new to this year’s rankings are UN Reno, Lee University and College of Charleston. Reno had been leading the West Coast, with its most significant win coming against UC Santa Cruz. Reigning league champ Humboldt had been stymied by forfeits and cancelations, and finally opened its season against the 3-0 Nevada side. Humboldt prevailed, barely, in a fantastic 28-26 game (read more).

Lee and College of Charleston are both 2-0, so they anchor the Top 20. The former will play UT Chattanooga (3-0) this weekend, and that match should lend some perspective to the team’s relative strength. CoC was the second team to beat Appalachian State, which has fallen out of the Top 20, this season.

The only friendly worth mentioning was the rematch of the Capital conference final. Mary Washington beat Salisbury when it counted in the fall, but Salisbury got some revenge last weekend with a 22-12 win. Regardless of the circumstances influencing the result – pre-season, working depth, missing personnel, etc. – a win is a win, and Salisbury slides in front of Mary Washington for the time being.

Keep an eye on the following DII matches this weekend, as they’ll affect the forthcoming rankings:

Feb. 28 – March 1: Women DII College Games
Carolinas
Appalachian State @ South Carolina
Elon @ College of Charleston

Cascade
Idaho @ Seattle
Western Oregon @ Western Washington

Florida
FL International @ Miami
FL Atlantic @ Eckerd

South Independent
Clemson @ North Georgia
Lee @ UT Chattanooga
Alabama @ Spring Hill
Georgia Southern @ Emory

Southern California
Long Beach State @ USC
Occidental @ UC Riverside
CSU Northridge @ CSU Fullerton
UC Irvine @ Claremont

West Coast
Sacramento State @ CSUMB (friendly)
SF BATS @ Humboldt
Fresno State @ Santa Clara
St. Mary's @ UN Reno